NEMS actuator driven by optical gradient force

A nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) based optical actuator driven by optical gradient force is demonstrated. The actuator consists of two ring resonators and one mechanical arc. The resonating light inside the actuation ring generates optical gradient force on the mechanical arc and induces a displacement. The actuation ring is an integrated electro-optics modulator which tunes the Q-factor of the ring resonator. The nano-scale displacement is sensed by the integrated displacement sensor through opto-mechanical effects. By increasing the tuning voltage from 0 V to 3.5 V, the resonance wavelength of the sensing ring shifts 0.17 nm which corresponds to a 13-nm displacement of mechanical arc. With its chip-scale integratability, the optical actuator has potential applications in NEMS and nano-manipulation fields.